Gaming machines, such as slot machines, video poker machines, and the like, have become increasingly more complex over the last few years, spanning a large variety of composite component and board arrangements, in addition to the modular addition of graphical, audio, gaming logic cards and boards, which may be connected by a common backplane. The presence of various boards and the state of proper connectivity is a topic of particular concern to gaming technicians. When boards are not present or properly seated, this may cause significant errors during the installation, configuration, and instantiation of various gaming equipment. Further, when a board (or physical electronic chip/module) is not properly seated or positioned, significant damage may occur when voltage is applied to the improperly seated component(s).
In modern gaming machines, it is routine for a common backplane to act as a conduit for connecting various component boards, such as a central processing unit (CPU) module board (housing one or more processing units and/or executing logic for equipment operation), gaming I/O board(s) (control of switches, lighting, non-volatile random access memory, etc.), communication boards (for information transfer to other electronic equipment), and memory devices (for enhanced digital storage capacity), to name a few. As more components and boards are introduced to the gaming system at large, there are inherent concerns with proper connectivity, compatibility, and overall system operation (and resultant component safety and integrity) when one or more of these components and boards are improperly seated or connected and voltage is applied to each component, board, and the system at large.
Therefore, there is an apparent need for technically simple, physical safeguards for gaming machines which regulate voltage to selective components based upon the connected status of other components, thereby protecting sensitive electronic components from receiving voltage when various components or boards are improperly seated or connected.